After Mercedes led the way in the first practice session, Red Bull returned with a quicker time in the second practice session and created a near dead-heat with Max Verstappen edging Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by a mere 0.008 seconds.
Meanwhile, Bottas’ Mercedes teammate, seven time-defending Formula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton, was not far back – only 0.253 seconds – but was complaining that there was “something not right with the car”.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton set their fastest times on soft tires – as Bottas did in the first practice session – but Bottas switched to the medium tires in the second practice session.